Mercantile - Recovery Is An Art

TRAINING

Debt Recovery is a very competitive industry; it takes special skills to be able to convince someone to pay their debts or overdue payments that they haven’t paid previously.

Apart from having to be persuasive we also need to understand and abide to governing laws and regulations that have been established for debt collections. Hence we have developed an in-house training manual to be used for new collectors.

Duration of training for new officers is 3 days, and it focuses on:-

Company background and brief description about the business and opportunity for career advancement;
The compliance and understanding of FSA 2013 (Section 97), Companies Act 1965 (Section 132, 132A) and BNM Fair Debt Practice (September 2007) – For banking portfolio only;
The importance of effective communication can never be underestimated. Proficiency in communication skills can be learned and reduces the potential for conflict as well as facilitates better work practices and customer satisfaction. Our programs address the mindset – the key to providing excellent service.

System Training – to familiarize new collectors on how to use and update our Annecto DMS system.
Product Training, which covers Banking portfolios (Conventional and Islamic Loans), Consumer Products, Telecommunications and may be customized to fit certain industry.
After completion of the 3 days training there will be an on job training whereby the new collectors will have a Mentor to assist and what ever they have learned during training will then be applied. The purpose is to identify weaknesses of call script, approach and persuasion technique and skills required in order to achieve maximum collection as well as the method on how to handle rude and to break broken promise to pay cases.

In effective communication training, we emphasis on the following issues:-

Telephone Voice

- importance of strong interpersonal skills
- first impressions and personal effectiveness
- voice quality, inflection and pacing

Listening Skills

- types of listening, improving listening skills
- levels of, and barriers to, listening
- what the customer is really "saying" when under stress

Common Difficulties

- how communication can break down during the call
- avoiding misinterpretations
- the main reasons for not paying
- dealing with evasion, delays, complainers and objectors

Meeting Customer Needs

- dealing with customers in a variety of emotional states
- holding back ones own emotions when confronted with angry or abusive customers
- guiding the customer to a state in which there is a willingness to pay

Telephone Collection Skills

- pre-call planning, the basic steps of collection calls
- getting through to the right person
- your opening statement
- precision questioning
- handling objections
- transition to payment arrangement

Handling Customer Complaints

- how not to repeat the same mistake
- to provide additional coaching/ training where necessary
- take responsibility of the action